THE FOLLOWING DAY, I WOKE UP rather early. I was the first of the girls to wake up so I headed straight into the Common Room and sat by the fire with a book. A few moments later, I heard footsteps coming down the stairs. I turned around to see Tommy and Seamus entering the Common Room. "You're up early," Seamus pointed out, sitting in the armchair next to me.
Tommy leaned on the side of the sofa I was sitting on. I moved up slightly so Tommy could sit down. "Yeah, I fell asleep quite early last night," I told Seamus, putting my book down. "Those beds are actually quite comfortable," I noted, rather surprised.
Seamus nodded his head before his stomach growled loudly. "God, what time is it? I'm starving!" He turned around to take a look at the tall grandfather clock, behind him, which told him it was 6:30. He let out a groan and crossed his arms over his chest in a huff.
Tommy, Seamus and I began talking about the first day. "Oh," Tommy spoke up. "Percy left me with your schedule, I left it on the bookcase," he told me before walking over and grabbing it. He handed it to me and I took a quick glance at it. "What've you got first?"
I folded it up and put it in my book so I wouldn't lose it. "Divination," I told him. I wasn't sure whether to pick Divination or not because at Beauxbatons we only really studied subjects with a definitive answer. Divination is all down to interpretation so it would be new to me.
Seamus lifted his head up and unfolded his arms from his chest. "I've got Divination, as well," he added with a soft smile. "I'll take your there after breakfast," he told me, giving me a quick nod. "Trawlaney's classroom is chaos apparently."
I let out a soft laugh at the thought. "Madam Maxine would never have allowed that at Beauxbatons," I told the boys, to which they seemed rather interested in. They kept asking me what it was like at Beauxbatons. "It was in the mountains somewhere in the South of France. We had students from France, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Belgium, but most of my friends were from France."
Tommy looked quite intrigued, a lot more than what I thought anyone would be. "So can you speak French?" He asked me, to which I smiled, getting ready to impress.
I cleared my throat, preparing to speak the language I hadn't spoken in a few months. "Je parle couramment le français. Je peux aussi parler un peu espagnol et un peu de portugais," I spoke pretty well considering I hadn't spoken the language in a while.
Seamus' jaw dropped as Poppy and Stella entered the Common Room. "Tasmin speaks French!" He exclaimed pointing to me. "What did you say, exactly?" He asked me, his tone a lot less enthusiastic and a lot more confused.
The smile on my face only grew larger and another soft laugh fell out of my lips. "A vague translation is 'I speak French pretty much fluently. I also speak a little Spanish and a bit of Portuguese.' I haven't spoken French in a couple of months so I'm a little rusty on pronunciation," I told them all.
Stella grew a wide smile on her face, almost as though she had come up with a brilliant idea. "How about you teach us some French and then we can all speak in French so no one will know what we're saying?" She beamed at me.
I decided it was a pretty good idea, so swiftly agreed. Up until breakfast, I had been teaching them basic phrases and tenses so they could begin to learn the language. Breakfast went quite quickly and it didn't seem like long before Seamus and I began to head towards Divination with Harry and Ron.
I silently hoped and prayed that Draco wouldn't be in my Divination, even though I promised myself that anything he would say to me would mean nothing, it would just make things a lot easier. We arrived at Divination and just to my luck, Draco wasn't there.
When Seamus told me Trawlaney's classroom was chaos, he was absolutely right. It wasn't just the room that was chaos, but the actual class as well. She declared that in Harry's cup of tea leaves, he had the Grim, an omen of death. Hermione quickly brushed it off when we all began to walk down to Care of Magical Creatures.
My luck had soon run out when we arrived down to Hagrid's hut, Draco, Crabbe and Goyle were all in this class, making me want to head my way back up into the school. I paused for a moment before reminding myself that nothing Draco was going to say or do would mean anything to me - good or bad. I was going to take every word he said as a pinch of salt.
Hagrid told us that he had a big surprise for us all, with it being his first lesson. He took us not too far into the Forbidden Forest, just on the outskirts. Stella and I sat on the wall at the back of the class, getting our books out. I remembered which book it was straight away because it nearly bit my hand off in the bookshop. "Right you lot, stop chattering. Form a group over there and open your books to page 49," Hagrid instructed us all.
Draco scoffed, waving his book around. "And exactly how do we do that?" He spat at Hagrid, dropping his bag a bit further down the wall to where Stella and I were sitting.
Hagrid turned to look over his shoulder at Draco and rolled his eyes. "Stroke the spin, of course," he replied before heading off to get something. I stroked the spine of the book, to which it almost purred in return. Neville must've forgotten to stroke the spine of his book as it began to attack him.
Draco and all of his friends were making fun of Neville, telling him not to be such a wimp. Hermione turned to Harry and shook her head. "I think they're funny," she spoke up, sarcastically, before rolling her eyes.
Draco must've overheard her as he leaned on the tree behind him, biting into his bright green apple. "Oh yeah, terribly funny," he remarked, smugly. Hermione heard his reply and turned back around to face him. "Really witty. God, this place has gone to the dogs. Wait until my father hears that they've got this oaf teaching classes."
Crabbe and Goyle burst into laughter. Harry began stalking over to Draco, a rage in his eyes. "Shut up, Malfoy," he retorted in a warning tone. I glanced over at Stella and she looked almost amused at the scene unravelling before her.
All the Slytherin's let out a string of 'oohs', mocking Harry for defending Hagrid. The whole class went silent before forming a group around the two. Stella practically pulled me off the wall to join the group. She pushed her way up to the front so I was only feet away from Draco, who was by then inches away from Harry.
Draco looked above Harry's head, off into the distance, pointing. "Dementor, dementor!" He cried before the whole class snapped their heads in the direction to which he was pointing in. Draco, Crabbe and Goyle all started laughing, putting the hoods of their cloaks up and taunting Harry. Hermione pulled Harry away, sending them all a cold look.
I felt bad for Harry and decided to make my way over to Draco. "What the hell is your problem?" I demanded, getting sick of him already. "Why do you get so much enjoyment from bullying people?"
Draco bit into his apple one more time before smirking. He stepped closer to me and it was at that moment I realised how much taller than me he actually was. "I love seeing people getting angry," he replied, his smirk still on his face. "You're just fuelling my enjoyment, Princess."
Stella scoffed and shook her head at Draco. "Come on, Tasmin, he's not worth your breath," she told me, grabbing my forearm and pulling me away. Hagrid cleared his voice and introduced the Hippogriff, Buckbeak.
He asked who wanted to stroke it, and everyone, including me, took a step back. I had an encounter with a Hippogriff in the first year at Beauxbatons, and let me tell you, it wasn't pleasant. I looked across the class to see Harry hadn't notice everyone had taken a step back and Hagrid thought this was him volunteering.
Harry obviously didn't have the heart to tell him that he didn't volunteer, so went through with it anyway. He managed to successfully stroke him so Hagrid picked Harry up and involuntarily nominated Harry to ride him, to which he had no choice but to do. Buckbeak soared through the air and flew off into the distance.
I began to tell Seamus, Dean, and Stella all about my encounter with the Hippogriff. "She was called poussière d'étoiles, which means stardust," I began explaining. "I loved the name and I didn't see the danger in going over to her before it was too late." I rolled up my sleeve to reveal a scar on the back of my forearm. "It was a very deep cut and I remember it being so painful. Never went anywhere near her again."
Dean looked at the scar, almost examining it. "God, that must've been terrifying," he noted, correctly. "Especially for a first-year when all of this is new." I nodded my head and I could hear Draco let out a laugh from behind me.
"Sounds pathetic, if you ask me," he spoke up, pushing past Dean and grabbing my arm to look at the scar. I tried to pull my arm away but his grip was too tight.
I looked up at him, our eyes catching contact and my chest became tight, my breath disappearing completely. "Luckily, no one asked you," I replied, this time successfully pulling my arm away and managing to shake off whatever that feeling was before.
To that, Draco didn't have an answer, so I quickly walked away before he could think of one. After around ten minutes, Buckbeak finally landed and the class began to praise Harry. Harry jumped down off the Hippogriff and Draco obviously didn't like all the attention Harry was getting. "Oh, please," he said, throwing his apple core to the floor.
Draco pushed past Dean and me, strutting his way over to the Hippogriff. "Yes! You're not dangerous at all are you, you great ugly brute!" He insulted it, Hagrid quickly turned away from Harry and warned Malfoy to back off. Buckbeak was now on his two hind legs and Draco put his arm up to shield his face. To his misfortune, Buckbeak scratched his arm when pounding his front legs to the floor.
Draco fell to the floor and the class began to panic, a lot of screaming. I covered my face with my hands, not wanting to see what happened. Hagrid managed to calm Buckbeak down so I removed my hands, reliving my injury in my head.
Hermione demanded that Draco needed to be taken to the hospital wing and Hagrid nodded his head instantly. He picked Draco up and began to carry him away. "Hagrid!" Hermione called as he began to walk away. He turned around to face her again. "Tasmin has been injured by a Hippogriff before, maybe she should go as well, for his peace of mind," Hermione absentmindedly mentioned. As soon as she said it, her face morphed into a look of apology and turned to me.
Hagrid called me over to come to the hospital wing and I didn't want to argue, with it being my first day. I grabbed mine and Draco's bag before heading up to the hospital wing, saying goodbye to Stella. Now, this is exactly what I didn't need.